Ballarat heritage: broadcasting pioneers of radio and television

By Jarrod Watt (Multiplatform editor, Victoria)

From Henry Sutton to Jack Young, Bob O'Brien and the Vibratones; the 2013 Ballarat Heritage Festival celebrates the heritage and legacy of entertainment, with an exhibition and interview program that will reveal a world first mobile radio broadcast from Clunes, the Ballarat based journalist who swapped whiskey for the latest technology to become Australia's first ever roving radio reporter, and the golden era of local television, when rock and roll was king.

Is there something in the water - in the air - in the blood - for those who grow up in Ballarat, or was it the very notion of an historically prosperous town relatively close to Melbourne, but far enough away to inspire those who live there to so enthusiastically want to entertain others?

The theme for the 2013 Ballarat Heritage Festival this year is 'entertainment' - looking at Ballarat's rich history in theatre, performance and the arts - but one aspect of the program looks at Ballarat's heritage of pioneering broadcasters and their contribution.

While ABC Ballarat has only been broadcasting in Ballarat for the last decade, a perhaps lesser-known fact is the ABC's appointment of its first ever Director of Music in 1931 was the Ballarat-born William James, who served in the position until 1957. It was under the tenure of William James that the ABC established its state orchestras, while his musical legacy lives on in the music he wrote, most notably his Australian Christmas carols.

Yet Ballarat's place in Australian broadcasting history is also strongly associated with those in the commercial broadcasting field, including the world's first mobile radio broadcast, inspired in part by a need for one seller of tractors and agricultural machinery to sell his message to communities outside of the fixed broadcast areas.

Local community radio broadcaster Amy Tsilemanis will be hosting a series of question and answer sessions from representatives of the ABC, 3BA and BTV6 on Sunday in the Ballarat Art Gallery Annexe, looking at the history of innovation from within Ballarat in the field of radio and television broadcasting, with displays of artefacts of historic technology as well as screens displaying the audio-visual history of Ballarat's electronic pioneers.

"One of the displays is going to be broadcast history, focussing on 3BA which started in 1930, and also BTV6, which was Ballarat's own television station, which started in 1960... there's some film which Warne Wilson took which we'll be playing, and also some variety from BTV6 which will be on display as well," she says.

"We're going to learn all about that; I guess recording is another aspect, when radio was starting out the broadcast was the main focus but then technology came in with recording as well which we'll be touching on, bringing out a few local stories which are going to be very fascinating."

One of the more contemporary aspects of Ballarat's broadcasting heritage is the long reign of In Six Tonight, the BTV6 variety program which saw an estimated 1,000 live acts pass before its cameras, filmed live.

Central to the success of In Six Tonight was the legendary houseband The Vibratones, who featured in some 20 or so appearances on the more famous In Melbourne Tonight variety program, but played hundreds more on-air performances for their hometown program, forever considered Ballarat's very own fabulous foursome, lead by the equally legendary Graeme Vendy.

"Graeme Vendy was the musical director of Six Tonight, and also a Ballarat musician who's been playing around since the 1950s, and we'll be featuring him in interview on Sunday as well."

Jack Young and 3YB

Jack Young was a 3BA broadcaster who, along with engineer Bert Aldridge and Vic Denneny, fronted a syndicate which applied to the post-master general for a mobile radio license. They were granted a license with the call sign 3YB - the Y standing for Young, and the B for Ballarat - with the caveat their equipment could be no more than 25 watts and their operation only allowed outside the 50 kilometre radius of the existing regional broadcasters in the region.

Their equipment was housed in a Model A and Model T Ford - with the world's first mobile broadcast from Clunes in 1931. While Vic Dinneny approached local businesses for advertising, Bert Rennie and Jack Young would assemble the transmitter, with the station going to air from 6pm each night, complete with live advertising reads from Dinneny of the businesses he'd signed up between recorded music and entertainment programs.

It took a year on the road of the gruelling process of assembling and disassembling the transmitter in each town before Young decided to approach the the Victorian Railways commissioner for use of a rail carriage for the radio station. The Commissioner agreed - and rented them the use of the carriage which had been modified for use by the Duke and Duchess of York (King George V) when they visited Australia for the federation in 1901.

Radio 3YB continued to operate from the carriage - with studios, living quarters and the transmitter and power supply - for another three years until 1935, when the Post-Master General approved two permanent locations; 3YB in Warrnambool, and 3UL in Warragul began operating within the next year.

Bob O'Brien, Australia's first roving radio reporter

It took half a dozen bottles of whiskey, but it seemed a fair swap for Captain Bob O'Brien, technical officer-in-charge in the Australian Army. He'd been stationed in the north of Australia at the end of the war when a thirsty US serviceman offered to swap his 'little black box' for a stash of firewater - the box was a Utah wire recorder, the very first commercially available portable audio recorder.

The Clunes-born journalist had already had experience in radio; at age 16 he'd been an announcer on 3KZ in Melbourne, at aged 17 he'd been studio manager at 7UV in Ulverstone, Tasmania before moving to 7BU in Burnie, and in 1939 became the founding station manager for 3CS in Colac.

In 1945 Bob O'Brien returned to Melbourne and sold his talents and his technology as an 'on the spot reporter' to 3AW - becoming the legendary Radio Roundsman, dominating the ratings.

According to the December 21, 1946 edition of The Argus newspaper:

"With his little portable radio recorder, Bob of the rich radio voice will be out and about doing split-second interviews and on-the-spot eye-witness stuff. He will present it in the form of a newsreel from Monday to Friday at 12.15 each day."

Bob O'Brien went on to cover many newsworthy events over the next three years, including being the first broadcaster to sail out to a sinking ship and broadcast a commentary of the crew's evacuation (the wreck of the S.S.Time on Corsair Reef, Queenscliff, 1947), and 'The Miracle of Macedon' the following year, in which O'Brien and his crew arrived shortly after a Melbourne-Adelaide passenger aircraft crashed on Mount Macedon.

Bob O'Brien would go on to become Australia's first on-the-spot television reporter for GTV9 Melbourne, appointed by chief of staff Michael Schildberger for the program Night Watch, as well as reading news with Sir Eric Pearce and Jack Little, before moving back to Ballarat to start a family, start a newspaper (Ballarat and Central Gazette, which became the Ballarat News) and in 1976 becoming the news director of 3BA.

Hear more stories of Ballarat's broadcasting and entertainment heritage on Sunday, 12th of May in the Ballarat Art Gallery annexe.